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LOS ANGELES, CA - As we continue to debate why women can't earn the same wage as a man and why they are less likely to be promoted- educators around the world have been experiencing the mirrored opposite problem. In school, it's the girls who constantly beat out the boys.
Girls started outpacing boys in educational achievement starting in the 1960s. These days, girls earn 57% of bachelor's degrees and 51.8 percent of PhDs.
A few years ago, a school district in Europe found a surprising way to narrow the gender gap, they began to start the school day in the afternoon.
For the entire school year, students would switch off between starting school at 7:30 am or starting school at 1:30 pm. Economists at the University of California at Davis said that starting school in the afternoon gave a surprising boost to the boys. In the months when their classes were held in the afternoon, boys got slightly better grades on their assignments and tests.
So why is that? Psychological studies show that girls tend to perform better than boys when sleep deprived.
But just because they can perform better with less Zzzz's doesn't mean they should have to. Can't we all just press the snooze button on these early morning classes and give every kid a chance to do their best? I bet you'll find that both boys and girls are so good at sleep they can do it with their eye's closed.